5 Niche Social Media Sites for Web Designers
Published October 11th, 2007 in Social MediaSocial media can be a huge source of traffic, but making it to the front page of a major site like Digg is difficult, and the traffic is not usually as targeted as many other forms of traffic. For these reasons niche social media sites are a great solution. While traffic volume may not be as high, it will be much more targeted and it’s more realistic that your submissions will be noticed.
If you are a web designer, there are a number of niche sites that you should be aware of. Here are five with a brief description of each.
1. DZone
DZone is a community of web developers and software developers, and it probably provides the most technical content of any of the sites listed here. As the largest community listed, DZone also has the potential to send more traffic than any of the others.
How it works:
- You create an account.
- Users can submit a link to an article that is development-related.
- Members can vote up or down for the articles.
- Anyone can subscribe to the RSS feed.
- Currently, there are over 9,000 subscribers to the feed of popular links.
- Currently, there are over 1,000 subscribers to the feed of new links.
A submitted link doesn’t need to get that many votes in order to be made popular, but votes don’t come easily. The content is highly targeted, and anything non-developer related will be shot down and probably deleted. If one of your links makes it to the front page (and gets sent out to the 9,000+ subscribers) you can easily receive 500 or more visitors in a day. The DZone community seems to include a large number of del.icio.us users as I have had several posts rack up bookmarks and make it to the front page of del.icio.us immediately following traffic from DZone.
2. CSS Globe
CSS Globe is not a typical social media site where members vote on submissions. It specializes in web standards and design-related content.
How it works:
- Members create an account (have to be approved).
- Members can submit links with brief descriptions.
- The links go out to CSS Globes RSS subscribers.
So essentially CSS Globe is more of a user-controlled blog than a social media website. But it sends links with descriptions rather than full blog posts. Links can receive as much as 200 or more visitors in a day from CSS Globe. Actually, this week I’ve had over 400 visitors in a day from CSS Globe. If you have quality design-related content and a good headline, CSS Globe is easy traffic.
3. Pixel Groovy
Pixel Groovy is a user-controlled tutorial directory. Topics include CSS, PHP, JavaScript, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more.
How it works:
- Members create an account.
- Members submit links to tutorials/articles.
- Submissions are voted up and down by users.
Pixel Groovy’s RSS feed currently has over 1200 subscribers. I’m not sure how much traffic it sends to top stories because I have not used it very much.
4. Design Float
Design Float is a Digg-Style social media site that focuses on design related content, as opposed to Digg’s general approach.
How it works:
- Members create accounts.
- Members can submit links and vote (actually “float”) on other submissions.
- Much like Digg, users can add friends.
- Top stories are posted on the front page.
I’ve submitted to articles to Design Float and been pleasantly surprised with the results (100 – 200 visitors to each). It appears to be an up-and-coming community for designers.
5. DevelopersNiche
Like Design Float, DevelopersNiche is a Digg-style site, with a niche focus. It works exactly the same as Design Float, so I won’t re-write that information. DevelopersNiche is the smallest community of the sites listed here and will send the least amount of traffic. However, that means it is easier to get your submissions to the front page and get a little bit of exposure.
If you know of any other social media sites in this niche please leave a link in the comments.
EDIT: You can add Design Bump and Design Related to this list.
69 Responses
Great list!
Thanks
Lee,
Thanks for visiting. I’m glad you liked the list.
It’s a pity I’m not a designer.
Otherwise I’d be putting this list to use right now. If only I had the time to study and learn all this web design thing…
Steven, that reminds me, I’d done some looking around to find out if there were any SNWs in my “niche” – I didn’t have a lot of luck though, would you know any places to look at offhand?
Thank you! This is very helpful.
Pretty useful site to discover new pages/sites!
Thanks for this list. As marketing director for a web company I am always on the lookout for more sites like these. I had not heard of all of these so thanks for bringing them out.
Karthik,
I’ve found a few from time to time by visiting forums. Find some forums in your niche, do a search of past posts and leave a new one if you don’t find anything. Talking to other people in the niche is a good way since they are most likely to know. You could email other bloggers maybe.
Tay, Felix, and Tim,
I’m glad this list will be helpful to you all.
Pretty good list there. I’m definitely forwarding your site to my friend, he could really use this info. Awesome.
Nice list.
I found myself visited DZone much more than Digg after I fist met it. It makes more sense to me, as a CS student, than Digg.
People don’t like to comment on it, though. Maybe because developers prefer coding and reading to speaking
Jaux,
Thanks for visiting and reading. Yes, I like the targeted traffic from Dzone. You’re right, it doesn’t seem to generate comments though.
I like the photoshop tutorials from pixelgroovy. Each mini tutorial is like a new little nugget to have under my belt.
DZone is great for bringing in software development traffic. On my .NET related blog I’ve had days where I’ve gotten over 1000 views from DZone. General or controversial topics bring the most traffic while nuts-and-bolts articles will provide less traffic although it will be more sticky.
DotNetKicks is a great social media site for .NET developers. While it doesn’t get the traffic of DZone it’s audience is highly targeted on development with Microsoft products.
Frank,
Thanks for mentioning DotNetKicks. I’m compiling a list of social networks, so I’ll be sure to add that one.
Great post ~
I just got a link on a health social media site called http://v.mercola.com/blogs/ and it generated about 1000 visits to my site and currently has 1746 hits to post on Mercola. There’s no way to add your post to the site, but emailing Dr. Mercola – the site owner with a related post may result in a placement!
Hi Christine,
Thanks for clicking through on my comment at your blog. I’m glad to hear that a niche site has brought some targeted traffic to you. I’ll have to add that site to a list I’m compiling.
Hey. Thanks for that. CSS Globe looks cool.
Although it is watered down with amateur art and anime. I think Deviantart.com is still a great source for feedback on projects and also finding inspiration…
Acopic,
I really like CSS Globe, try it out sometime.
Rick,
That’s true. I haven’t really used it, by I’ve heard others say the same thing. Thanks for the feedback.
Out of these 5 I am use Dzone for a while, and it so have nice amount of traffic to send your way. I will also try your other recommendations, Thanks!
Awesome list. I’m off to look at all the sites.
Great Links, thanks for those. I have never heard of DevelopersNiche website, it looks like it will be a very interesting one. Thanks again!
Thanks for the links, I was using DZone before but I like the other sites too, especially Pixel Groovy.
Yeah, DZone is probably the most well know on the list. Pixel Groovy is nice because there’s also some graphic design content as well.
Great list. I just launched a Digg-like site for designers called Design Sites Up. My favorite on this list above is Design Float, I’m on there every day.
Thanks.
Rachel
Don’t forget about design:related™
perfect to notify !
styleignite.com is also worth a look
Some Top tools will be sure to check out. Many Thanks
designrelated looks cool
thanks for the article, i use dzone as well and i love it.
Very helpful. Thx.
Very nice article, all of them are bookmarked on del.icio.us
good article , helpful!
my best social site current now its Design Float.
Hi Steven,
I’ve recently gotten into Design Float and DZone (and I rediscovered your blog through there too).
I’ll have to try the other three. Cheers.
Actually, some of these are a little stale.
The latest published item on Developer’s Niche is 129 days old and the latest upcoming is 14 days old.
With Pixel Groove, the last published items are 252 days old. The Groove (upcoming) section has something from within the last hour, but the feed to the Groove section throws a FeedBurner error. There’s also a lot of spam (the last entry is about locating mortgage rates in Oakland, Ohio!).
Probably not worth worrying about these two.
thanks for the article, i use dzone as well and i love it.
I had never heard of these. I am going to check them out
Very nice article, all of them are bookmarked on del.icio.us
Very nice list of Social Media Sites for Web Designers. The only question is: Is registration free everywhere, or anywhere there is a fee, or on invitations?
that is awesome i will be checking these out! thanks.
SirNicoalus
Really its a nice list. I will take my time to visit the sites and see which ones I will invest my time on.
Thanks for this list. As marketing director for a web company I am always on the lookout for more sites like these. I had not heard of all of these so thanks for bringing them out.
For me the most suitable Design Float, try to use. Some more specialized social networks are there? For example, a network for designers interested in banner ads.
I can’t believe I haven’t used these sites yet, thanks for letting me know to get started.
what a great resource
Great post! Thanks, I’ve been looking for something like this for a while! I’ll definately try the last three. I wonder how hard is it to get to the headline on CSSGlobe. Maybe I’ll try that also.